SPECIAL REPORT: DOT to shut down on Tuesday March 2, 2010 because of Sen. Jim Bunning's non vote!

[1776Forever]

SPECIAL REPORT: DOT to shut down on Tuesday
Friday, Feb. 26, 2010 –

http://www.landlinemag.com/Special_Reports/2010/Feb/022610-DOT-to-shut-down.htm

As of Tuesday, March 2, a big chunk of the U.S. Department of Transportation will be shut down temporarily because of a lack of funding. Just how long it lasts will depend on Congress.

The stunning news came Friday after the Senate adjourned without passing legislation to extend surface transportation programs that were set to expire Sunday, Feb. 28.

As a result, 4,000 DOT employees will be at home without pay starting Tuesday, leaving only a skeleton crew to deal with matters of immediate safety.

Affected agencies include the Federal Highway Administration, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Federal Transit Authority and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

For truckers, the shutdown will bring business such as audits, authority applications, MCS-150 updates and other paperwork issues to a grinding halt.

The shutdown will not immediately affect scale houses, which are run by state law enforcement agencies. However, because FMCSA provides funding to state agencies for commercial vehicle enforcement, the furlough will put reimbursements in jeopardy.

U.S. Rep. James Oberstar, D-MN, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, called an emergency press conference on Friday to shed light on the rare occurrence. The last government shutdown happened in 1995 and 1996 over disagreements about appropriations.

“The shutdown of the federal highway program means that the Federal Highway Administration won’t be able to reimburse states for highway or transit funds,” Oberstar told reporters.

The furlough and lack of funding mean no money from FMCSA to fund state commercial vehicle enforcement.

“None of that will happen because there will be no funding for it, and if there is a furlough on Tuesday there won’t be any personnel available for enforcement action,” Oberstar told Land Line.

........

Note the article says scale houses will NOT be shut down for all our truckers out there.

[ChicagoSuz219]

1. I'm confused...

...I thought Bunning's non-vote was on Unemployment Insurance & Cobra. Is this all the same bill?

The other problem was that many people didn't know about the vote, for some reason, and had already left for the weekend.

In any event, they're coming in on Monday, instead of Tuesday, to try to push it through...

[1776Forever]

2. Yes it was in the same bill as was all of this:

Friday, Feb. 26, 2010
Bunning complains of missing UK game while blocking jobless benefits
By David Lightman, Halimah Abdullah and Linda B. Blackford - McClatchy Newspapers

http://www.kentucky.com/2010/02/26/1158396/bunning-single-handedly-stops.html

...The result: Some unemployment benefits could dry up Monday. Newly laid-off workers might not get federal help with health insurance premiums. Road and transit bills could go unpaid. Medicare payments to doctors would stay high. Rural satellite reception might even be affected.

.............

And so it goes.......

[ChicagoSuz219]

7. Thanks... it's coming back to me now.

Well, then, they'd better get cracking...

[BR_Parkway]

16. Rural satellite? That one might actually get some attention from the far

too many apathetic to what's going on around them.

Of course, no FAUX news in some of those locations for a few days wouldn't hurt in the least bit. Imagine if they got information without talking points for a couple days.

[Bitwit1234]

19. Lots of us on Medicare will be effected also

The republicans pushed thru a bill before they were thrown out of office in 2008, to cut Medicare 25%. Now hospitals and doctors can't afford this deep cut and have to stop accepting Medicare claims.

Every time they are in the majority the republicans do something to try to shut down Medicare and Social Security. I think the Democrats should pass a bill that can't be amended to protect Medicare and Social Security once and for all. After all..You pay for it all your working life. Why are they trying to take it away from you now.

[dmr]

3. Shameful n/t

[Tx4obama]

4. I think that Bunning will be changing his tune on Monday....

I read elsewhere that some of republicans are quite pissed off at Bunning at the moment for his BS.
I think that is what the article said, I could be wrong because I only skimmed it without paying too much attention at the time.
But I still think that on Monday something will be done.

[Emit]

5. Looks like they've been quite pissed off at him for some time

Bunning Will Not Seek Third Term
GOP Leaders Urged Senator to Retire

Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) will retire in 2010. (Susan Walsh - AP)
By Ben Pershing and Chris Cillizza
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) announced Monday that he would not run for a third term in 2010, unhappily bowing to pressure from Republican leaders who had urged him to retire.

After a decade in the Senate, Bunning, a baseball Hall of Fame member, had seen his political star fade in the Bluegrass State, to the point that Republicans feared his seat would fall to Democrats next November if he remained on the ballot. Led by fellow Kentuckian and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, GOP leaders mounted an unsubtle campaign in recent months to persuade Bunning to hang up his spikes.

Bunning, 77, gave in to their entreaties Monday, but not before making sure to assign some blame, particularly for his anemic campaign war chest.

"Over the past year, some of the leaders of the Republican Party in the Senate have done everything in their power to dry up my fundraising," Bunning said in a statement. "The simple fact is that I have not raised the funds necessary to run an effective campaign for the U.S. Senate. For this reason, I will not be a candidate for re-election in 2010."

~snip~

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/27/AR2009072703026.html?hpid=politics

[ChicagoSuz219]

9. Sounds like he's gonna be unemployed, too...

...he may need those benefits... LOL

[aquart]

12. So this is an act of bloody, vengeful spite.

I can't imagine what would be appropriate payback, but I hope it's rich with irony.

[1776Forever]

18. I think you are right on - Take a look at this from 2009 - Bunning loses his cool:

Wednesday, Mar. 11, 2009 Com
Bunning loses his cool with reporters
By Halimah Abdullah -

http://www.kentucky.com/2009/03/11/721816/bunning-loses-his-cool-with-reporters.html

WASHINGTON — Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning cursed at reporters during a telephone press call and refused to release the results of an internal political poll Tuesday.

The poll results are "none of your goddamn business," Bunning told reporters.

When a reporter asked whether Bunning's decision to keep the poll numbers private implies that he isn't happy with the results, he responded: "You are going to infer any damn thing you choose, so why should I try to influence it?"

............

Seems he has always been on the edge and wouldn't have won anyway if he had run!

[annabanana]

14. Maybe they should drag his sorry ass back to the Capitol TODAY

to fix this mess.

[Kablooie]

6. When are they going to adjust the Senate rules? This is totally ourtrageous.

One single guy can shut down government against everyone else's wishes.

What the hell is going on?

[customerserviceguy]

13. While we're into looking at that

let's also examine why the entire situation is so tight that one congresscritter can shut it down. It seems kind of stupid to have the Federal government run with so very little slack in the system.

[1776Forever]

17. Bingo! Reid waited too long this time. This bill should have been in the 1st Jobs Bill in IMO.

:hide:

[readmoreoften]

8. Wow, I got excited thinking this was a general strike, just to learn its infrastructure crumbling.

Sometimes reading the link is a real downer.

[Alias Dictus Tyrant]

10. I can't get too weepy, they shut down a lot of science R&D since last year.

They have plenty of money to spend on bailouts for morons, but they can't deliver money from 2009 that was already allocated to pay for a bunch of jobs doing some cutting edge applied science R&D.

Seriously, they talk about "stimulus", but they are 6 months behind already on delivering money that would have gone to hiring a bunch of people. This is happening all over in the R&D community, and people are getting laid off because of it. Money is being spent, but I have no idea where it is going. I guess the DoT is getting a taste. Maybe there weren't enough kickbacks...

[upi402]

11. Republican ideology is more important than America itself n/t

[SpiralHawk]

15. "Tough shit." - Republicon Homelanders

"We want America to FAIL." - Rush DraftDodger Limbaugh (R)